Bruins Blow Two-Goal Lead in 4-3 OT Loss to Senators in Game 2 of Playoffs

Just when it looked like the Boston Bruins were going to escape Ottawa with a 2-0 lead in their first round playoff series, the Senators struck for three unanswered goals to claim Game 2 on Saturday afternoon.

Dion Phaneuf capped the comeback with his first playoff overtime goal to guide the Senators to a 4-3 win.

The 12-year-veteran defenseman also assisted on both of Ottawa’s third period goals, which erased Boston’s first two-goal lead in six games against their Atlantic Division foes.

The B’s scored three times in the second period, with Drew Stafford, Tim Schaller, and Patrice Bergeron all lighting the lamp behind Senators’ goalie Craig Anderson.

Stafford got the Bruins on the board near the midway mark of the second period. The B’s applied some pressure in the offensive zone, with David Backes sending a puck towards the net. The pass deflected off the skate of Ottawa’s Viktor Stalberg right to the stick of Stafford, who lifted his shot over Anderson for his fifth career playoff goal and fifth overall tally in 20 games with the Bruins.

After Frank Vatrano went to the penalty box just 29 seconds after the Stafford goal, the Senators’ power play quickly tied the game at 1-1 on a goal from Clarke MacArthur. Ottawa worked the puck around the zone, with Bobby Ryan finding Derick Brassard at the goal line to the right of Bruins’ goalie Tuukka Rask. Brassard quickly found MacArthur for his first goal of the series.

The Bruins found themselves a man down yet again after Matt Beleskey drew multiple roughing penalties, but took advantage of a turnover by Anderson to take a 2-1 lead. Anderson came way out of his net, but had Dominic Moore bearing down on him, so he decided to try to send the puck behind his own net. Moore was the first player to the puck, and tried to beat Anderson back to his net. The puck squirted into open ice near the crease, and Schaller quickly buried it past three sprawling bodies.

Boston took a two goal lead with four minutes left in the second period, as Bergeron redirected a shot from the point by David Pastrnak while the B’s were on a power play. Ryan Spooner set the puck across the Senators’ zone to Pastrnak, whose low shot was lifted over the shoulder of Anderson by the deft stick of Bergeron.

Ottawa put the pressure on throughout the third period, realizing that overcoming a 2-0 series deficit to a team that won 19 of their last 26 games would be a near impossible task. Chris Wideman cut the lead to 3-2 when his shot from the blue line found its way through a ton of traffic and past Rask with 5:28 gone in the final period of regulation.

Just over two minutes later, the Sens tied the game at 3-3, as both Brassard and Phaneuf earned their second points of the game. Erik Karlsson took the puck from Phaneuf and worked his way around the entire Bruins’ zone, which drew the attention of nearly every Boston player on the ice. The B’s forgot about Brassard, who found some open ice near the net and the back of the net on a one-timer from Karlsson.

Bruins’ captain Zdeno Chara drew a delay of game penalty with just 13 seconds left in regulation, and while the Senators did not score on the power play to start the overtime period, they did strike soon after the penalty expired for the game-winner. Mark Stone fed the puck back to Phaneuf at the blue line, and his slap shot sealed the comeback victory for Ottawa and ended the Bruins’ hopes of stealing two games on the road.

The series shifts to the TD Garden on Monday night for Game 3, which is slated to start at 7pm.

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My name is Adam Belue, I'm from Fall River, MA, and I'm a sports fanatic. I'll watch and write about just about any and every sport, even the fringe ones that aren't really sports like bowling, poker, and ultimate frisbee. I'm a huge Green Bay Packers fan, and a self-proclaimed New England Patriots hater (and proud of it!)... which makes my job in a sporting goods store quite interesting. I'm a big fan of the other local teams (Bruins, Red Sox, and Celtics), along with the Alabama Crimson Tide and college football as a whole. I may be a bit obsessed (or a lot obsessed) with Taylor Swift, and I've seen her in concert four times so far... some of the best times I've had by the way her concerts are quite the experience! I'm also a huge tennis fan, and have played the sport for a good majority of my life. I wish more people watched and appreciated tennis. I'm currently a part of the Boston Bruins and Boston Red Sox Beat Team on CLNS Radio, and post a weekly fantasy football and college football column during the season.